52 miles!

Well, it was unintentional but yesterday we rode 52 miles!  We haven't ever ridden that far so it is quite a milestone.  This wasn't easy and we had many "oh no" hills, the type that make you stop and look and take a deep breath.  Zion's top speed was 42 and I'm sure we all went close to that since we wanted the speed to help us up the next hill.  Thursday we only rode 7 miles because of torrential rains.  Yesterday the sun actually broke through the clouds in the afternoon.  Cheers were heard from everyone.

Wednesday night we camped on a lake and fell asleep to the sounds of Loons calling.  The next afternoon Cedar watched a Bald Eagle flying overhead while he was washing the grit off our bike.  We all saw a groundhog and we have a toad here at our campsite.

I have discovered a major flaw with the Keen cycling sandals we are wearing.  We need to drill a hole in the front to drain the water out of them when we are riding.  Our toes are quite waterlogged at the end of a rainy ride.  Cord also discovered that his Thermarest mattress developed slits in it and it is now useless.  We won't be in a larger town for several days so we'll be praying for softer campgrounds until we find a sporting goods store.  

We are in New Hampshire riding through Madison County.  We saw our first covered bridge yesterday and will be trying to see more today.  It is the 4th of July so we won't be riding more than 20 miles.  These vacationing drivers are ones we want to avoid.  

I have to share one more thing.  As we were riding through the rain on Thursday, Cedar commented that when we return to California, he will thank God every day that it is sunny.  I never thought he would get tired of rain!